Introduction to Photography: Week 8

23.5.2014 (Week 8)

Casey Chong Jing Ping (0318756)

Introduction to Photography

Presentation: Photo Editing and Consistency

Lecture

Today's lecture is a bit different, it is about something different from what we have been learning these past few weeks. Today, we learnt about consistency. Mr.Vinod will teach us about photo editing in the next class during week 9. Consistency is a group of photographs that have the same 'theme' but are also different in a way. The photographs cannot have too little or too much consistency, and that is what make this a very difficult thing to achieve. There is no exercise on the topic of consistency because Mr.Vinod says that it is very difficult to capture photographs based on consistency and it is too advanced for us amateurs. But what we do need to do is take a 'selfie' picture of ourselves using the correct exposure and what we have learnt in these past few weeks. This exercise is an ungraded exercise because Mr.Vinod explained to us that we have finished doing all our graded exercises, not to say that this exercise is not important, it is just as important than the graded exercises and Mr.Vinod expects a lot from us. He wants and expects us to push the boundaries to the meaning of 'selfie', to go beyond the limits, and make a whole new meaning to that word. During the class, Mr.Vinod explained the meaning of consistency to us and showed us a lot of photographs that depicts the word consistency truly. If you use consistency correctly, the photographs will come out beautifully, and the photographs that Mr.Vinod showed t us were beautiful. I especially liked the collection of photographs on the lightning in the canyon, as there is such beauty in such dangerous things such as the lightning that might electrocute a person and cause death to that person. After the presentation and the briefing on the 'selfie' exercise, class was dismissed and we went to have lunch.

Instructions

-No exercises.

-Short assignment:

Take a selfie with the DSLR and your smartphone. Go beyond the boundaries and limits. Make a new definition to the term 'selfie'. Photographs must be black and white. Use the things that have been taught to you throughout the previous classes.

Feedback:

Specific feedback:
~None~

General feedback:

~None~

Reflections:

Experience:

My experience in this is that when I wanted to take the selfie, I was a little sick and that made me a little lazy, or maybe very lazy. So I did not get the chance to take the selfie on that day and I wanted to ask my friends to take the selfie for me the next day, which was on a Monday. But I think they all had to hurry home after classes and I did not want to annoy them, so I did not ask them to help me, which means that I was stuck with myself to take the selfie again. I guess God is trying to tell me that a selfie is meant to be taken by yourself, hence the name 'selfie'. But I did not want my selfie to be like any other normal selfie, with me holding the DSLR and my phone backwards and taking a picture just like that, That was the time that I discovered that my phone, the awesome Sony Xperia Z1, had a feature that takes photographs with a self-timer of 2 second or 10 seconds. And the same goes to the also awesome DSLR of mine, the Canon EOS 600D. I have discovered that it is quite difficult to take a selfie of myself even with the self-timer, and it is very difficult to take two photographs that are similar with a DSLR and a phone. You need a lot of patience and a lot of tries to make the photographs right and to achieve the perfect photographs that we wanted. And you cannot afford to be lazy. It is also best if you do it in good lighting conditions to take the photographs, the best bet is the natural lighting from the sun, but too much light from the sun will also cause overexposure, so we also have to choose a perfect timing when the sun is at the perfect spot to take the photographs, and we also have to act fast because the sun might hide behind some clouds at any second. So we have to make full use of the time we have that the sun actually cooperates with us.

Observations: 

I have observed during class that some people contribute a lot to the class and ask a lot of questions and also answers a lot of the questions. These are usually those who are willing to take a stab at something and will probably achieve more in the future. Others are more quiet and reserved. Maybe they are shy, or maybe they just merely have nothing to contribute to the conversation, choosing to absorb the information given by Mr.Vinod or the more active ones in class instead. The more quiet ones could also be quiet because classes start a little too early for them and they are just too sleepy to talk. (I'm sorry if this offends anyone!!!) I do not know which one am I, but I'd like to think that I am one of the more active ones, because I do try to contribute to the conversations and help others understand something that I think I understand with my point of view. If I don't understand something, I will ask questions too. I think that sometimes, I get too overexcited and active during class and will out of topic and talk about irrelevant things. On the other hand, sometimes I am quiet because I am either sleepy or really have nothing to contribute, because my mind can get blur sometimes, especially in the mornings. Moreover, I have observed through the photographs that Mr.Vinod showed us during class that with consistency, beautiful photographs can be produced, but it is very difficult to get photographs with just the right amount of consistency. All the photographs with good consistency are very captivating and great to look at. Also, I hae learnt that to get good photographs, one has to go the extra mile and be brave, like a photographer who went into a juvenile prison to take photographs of the prisoners there, that photographer also managed to get the prisoners to be placed in positions that they might not do in front of anyone else for the photographs. You also need patience to get good and consistent photographs, just like the photographer that took the series of photographs of the lightning in the canyon. That photographer is also very brave, climbing the canyon just to take the pictures of the lightning and the canyon from higher ground. Lastly, I have observed that photographer see the beauty in everything. Even in a prison, or a dangerous area where nobody else would ever go to, these photographers would be willing to go there to take photographs because they see the beauty in those places when nobody else can. That is what a true photographer is like, in my opinion.

Findings:

From this week I have found out that a photographer must be brave and patient. A photographer must not be shy but instead must be charismatic and brave enough to ask a random person that they have never met before to pose for a photograph. I also found out that my phone has a self-timer and I have learnt how to use the self-timer to my advantage. I have also learnt that my DSLR also have a self-timer, which makes my life much easier to take a good selfie all by myself without the help of others, because others are so unreliable nowadays (I'm just joking, but there is some truth to that). In a way, it is sometimes the best to rely on yourself rather than being dependent on other people around you. Most importantly, I have found out that my small laptop somehow does not support the features of Adobe Photoshop, which makes my life more difficult. I guess it is time to buy a new laptop, preferably a Macbook Pro, even though I don't really fancy Apple products all that much, but reviews from others reveal that the Macbook Pro is one of the best choices to get if you want to use it for Photoshop or Design. The prospect of getting a new laptop, even if it is something I don not fancy much, makes me happy. On the other hand, I feel really bad because I will be wasting a huge amount of my parents money on this product, but sacrifices must be made in order for me to have a brighter future. I just hope that I will be able to do well in my studies, be successful, and make my parents proud of me in the future. For now, I guess I will have to make use of the computer labs or the computers in the library for the Photoshop feature.
UPDATE: I just found out that the 30 day trial that I've downloaded actually works and I managed to use it. But as my laptop is merely a netbook, it is not meant to be used for downloading or containing such large files such as the Photoshop. Therefore the photoshop feature in my netbook is very large and not good to use at all. I shall have to get  a better laptop. In the meantime, I will probably make use with what I currently have or use the school's, Taylors facilities to my advantage.